Sure, we’re all thrilled that the Mets continued their Opening Day dominance on Monday with a win over the Marlins to start the 2010 season. It was a very complete performance with Johan Santana, Fernando Nieve and K-Rod holding the Marlins to one run; and our hitters, starting with David Wright belting a first-inning two-run homer against our nemesis Josh Johnson, delivering enough runs to make it a rout. Newcomers Jason Bay, Gary Matthews Jr. and Rod Barajas each had two hits as well.
Now the other shoe or four will start to drop, as we’ll see if John Maine, Mike Pelfrey and Oliver Perez can keep the Mets in games this season. It also remains to be seen if the lineup can consistently drive in runs like they did on Monday.
But I will say this. With all of the pundits (myself included) picking the Mets to finish third or fourth in the division and having absolutely no chance to make the postseason, there seems to be an air of “whatever” about this team. It’s not that they don’t care or don’t want to play hard, but that the expectations have been lowered to the point that they really can only exceed them. And sometimes you never know if players will have career years or at least play to their capabilities. So if they all do that, it’s not exactly a pipe dream to think that this team CAN succeed and reach the postseason in 2010. It’ll be a big surprise to us all, and maybe even to them, but surely, stranger things have happened.
So will tonight be the start of reality setting in, or will it be continued good fortune as well as good baseball that began earlier this week? Let’s Go Maine, and Let’s Go Mets!
